They Gang-Up Against Me Just Because I'm Igbo Woman – Onyeka Onwenu

When the call came on Sept 13 2013, to serve the Nigerian people as DG
National Center For Women Development, I took it as a call from God and I
answered in the affirmative.

I served for 2years and five months and did my best under very
difficult conditions. We hardly had money to operate and the place was
badly run down. Worst, there was low moral and lack of commitment among
the Staff. Most spent the day loitering and gossiping. Many would not
show up for work or arrive 11am, only to leave before 3pm. Some were
absent for months and we're just collecting their salary at home.

My administration changed all that. Most Staff were turned around and
became passionate about the work, appreciating also the changes they
thought were not possible but were happening right before them.

There remained though, a remnant who felt that the Center was their
personal preserve and that the position of Director General should only
go to someone from their part of the country. I was initially dismissed
as just a Musician. When that did not
work, I was targeted and abused for being an Igbo woman who came to give
jobs to and elevate my people while sidelining them. When these
detractors could not provide answers to the spate of improvement we were
bringing, they resorted to sabotage and blackmail.

The first such salvo was fired when a Senate Committee visited on an
oversight mission a few months after my arrival. All three Generators at
the Center were cannibalized, overnight, just hours to the visit.

We got over that incident and trudged on. The rest of our activities and
accomplishments, modest as they are is public knowledge. I have never
in my life been an unfair person. I never favored any group I carried
everybody along. But I did not put up with deliberate incompetence and a
refusal to learn, an attitude of entitlement which some people
displayed. We brought back a level of professionalism and commitment to
deliver on our mandate. Without these attributes, the Center would have
fallen apart.

When the call came for me to disengage from the Center, I took it in
good faith and with thanksgiving to the Almighty, Yes some stakeholders
were upset and tried to make a case for me to continue. Their effort was
a testimony of God's grace on my administration, but I also knew that
it was time to go. God who sent me there was taking me to a higher level
of service. His infinite wisdom is unassailable. That is my faith.
Besides, I was exhausted and had abandoned many personal projects to
devote myself, 200% to the Center.

The abuses and lack of cooperation from a mother Ministry, from those
who felt that the Center overshadowed them, to the extent that they
tried to discourage others from working with us, were just a bit much
for my comfort. I did not lobby for the job in the first place and I was
not going to lobby to keep it. I actually looked forward to leaving.
But some people were going to exact their pound of flesh.

They organized some staff, mostly Northerners, invited the Press and set
about to disgrace themselves. By mid afternoon, while the Heads of
Departments were putting together the handover notes, they seized the
keys to my official car, even with my personal items still inside. Threats began to fly. "That Ibo woman must" "we will disgrace her".
Their Chief organizer, the Acting DG, went about whipping up ethnic
sentiments against me. Late 2015, the same officer had gone to the
Center's Mosque to ask for the issue of a Fatwa against me, claiming
that I was working against the interest of the North. We nipped that in
the bud by calling a townhall meeting and asking that proof be provided.
The Fatwa was denied and peace reigned for a while.

Police was called in to the Center to escort me out and avoid blood shed
as I disengaged. Eventually, in the midst of insults and name calling,
with an angry baying crowd, some of whom were brought in from outside, I
entered my official car and left. At no time during this melee did I
threaten to sue Mr President for asking me to disengage. Why would I? Is
it not within his authority. Even if it were not, is the Center my
personal property. I had done my best and if it was time to go, it was
that simpleLife continues. I had a thriving career before my
appointment. The Center did not make me. I have so much to do. I am a
multitalented, multifaceted and multitasking child of God. By His grace,
the future is greater. So what is the problem?

Let me say here that The Federal Government should really look into the
Parastatals and take note of the fact that many people who work on them
do not have the requisite qualification. Many contribute nothing and
many see their job as personal entitlement. They are owed because
Nigeria belongs to them and them alone. Somehow,
these people were given the impression that they could attempt to do
what they did to me and nothing would happen. That is very sad indeed.
The Ministry also has a case to answer. They helped to creat that
impression. A situation where the Ministry could invite a Management
Staff to a trip abroad without informing the DG and the Staff would only
inform her principal via txt message, from the Airport as she is
leaving the country, creates an atmosphere of indiscipline and anything
goes. The Ministry should restrain itself to its spelt out function and
not undermine the authority of the DG.

Finally, I declare that I am a Nigerian citizen who should enjoy the
rights attendant to that privileged. I am Onyigbo and proud of it. I
respect myself and I love and respect all for who they are. We are all
God's children. No one has the right to insult or abuse me or deprive me
of my rights. Nigeria will not hold unless and until we all come to
that realization.